This is what I think. There are so many bigger problems than feeding corn to worry about.
How about a real tag system on bucks instead of just an honor system? How about limiting the number of does killed or going to doe days?
Those are 2 MAJOR problems that need adressed but instead all these "ethical" or "fair chase" hunters want to police how other people hunt their own properties. Who cares if you want to feed corn. It is not a magic spell that brings every deer in for miles like some people want to make it seem. It is just another tool to tilt the odds in your favor, just like a green field, or a high power rifle and scope, or estrus attractents, etc...
I believe the quantity of deer killed needs to be managed more than the method of how they are killed. You shoot them on a green field or you shoot them on a corn feeder, the end result is the same, dead deer and meat in the freezer. Does it really matter where it was when it died as long as it does not go to waste? Nope.
Now it does matter how many die every season to ensure there is a herd for future generations and so that more young ones can enjoy hunting because they are seeing deer.
Some people just need to stop trying to force everyone else to hunt the exact way they do.
Worry more about how many deer are being killed instead of what it was eating when it died.

Well start a thread on it the two major problems. They already exist though. None of what we say here affects what becomes legal/illegal anyways. The OP addressed food plots being baiting and that's where the conversation should, and did, go.

But Fred, in the real world I would bet every dollar I'll ever earn that less than 1% of hunters in Alabama plant year round as well. They'd be the same 1% (+,-) that plant for any reason other than attraction. The rest of us are being grossly disingenuous if we say we plant a food plot for any other reason than to pull our deer "right there" so we can shoot them. Any nutritional benefit is simply coincidental.

I don't put corn out because I think my deer are hungry, I put it out so I can make them come "right there" in front of my camera.

Take it easy post police. Expressing a view on corn, greenfields, fairchase, and baiting just like everyone else including yourself.

Just wait. You think they are angry now?? Try to limit the amount of does or bucks they can kill.

Lot of words here, but sometimes you got to man up and admit that you're wrong. It's not the same. Period.

Woohoo...something to add to my resume!

The very definition of bait is "food used to entice fish or other animals as prey". A greenfield is food that entices or attracts deer. Therefore a greenfield is bait. Corn is bait. A greenfield is a longer lasting, more labor intensive form of baiting, but it is bait.

so you are opposed to telling people how to hunt on their land (when it comes to baiting), but in favor of a more strict tag system that does a better job of insuring how people hunt on their land...

I'll take you up on that bet… I guarantee Whitetail Institute, alone, sells to way more than 1% of hunters that plant fields. Then you have Tecomate that isnt' doing too shabby, WMS right here out of Alabama that sells seed to a lot of folks on this site… Even your avg co-op mix includes a couple of different clovers that provide food way after the corn pile is gone… the debate isn't over intent, it's over food either being there or not being there post hunting season.

correct…bait, but different. acorns…bait, but different…20 acre bean field…bait, but different… all "bait" but all different than a corn pile… and only bait during hunting season…not bait after hunting season

Why does the bait have to be corn?
I would think that baiting would include protein pellets, sweet feed, hops, sweet potatoes, open cans of beer, peanut butter... just to name a few.
From what I can tell, the whole legalizing of "bait" would include all of these versus "legalizing corn".
I would bet that somewhere, there will be a good'un try the argument that growing marijuana keeps deer on their property and they have seen them eat corn chips by the bushel bag.

I've never been in a club, or associated with one single person, who plants year around for nutritional purposes. And that spans 25ish years and countless properties/people.

Don't get me wrong, I realize and agree with the practice, I just find it difficult to believe a substantial percentage of hunters plant (or otherwise manage forage/nutrition in the form of plots) more than once prior to season, for any intent other than hunting those fields. Even if 10% do, that's a lot of people sewing a lot of acreage, but that still leaves 90% who are only using a plot as "bait".

Now, perhaps you and some of the others in this thread are part of that 1% (or even 10%), so I can see how me using a plot simply for "bait" is different from how you use a plot. In similar fashion, that's also why I would never spend big dollars to buy expensive seed (Whitetail Institute, or Tecomate for example). I've always just used the el-cheapo Co-Op stuff...once dark settles on Jan 31st, I don't care what happens with that field. Just being honest.

I am against too much government involvment on telling people "how" they can hunt their land. But I am for common sense laws about "how many" deer can be killed because it ensures there will be deer here in the future. How you hunt and how many you kill are 2 totally different things. Unlike a greenfield and corn (or sweet taters or any other food source) which are all bait.

This is an enlightening thread. I have never considered myself a "baiter" but now I know better. Now I feel all guilty for doing that clearcut last year. All that cover and food I created is just cheating and will concentrate the deer for my slaughter.And I don't even want to think of the 100 or so Chestnuts, Sawtooths, Pears, DCO's, and Sequins I have selfishly planted the last 6 or 7 years to lure the poor unsuspecting creatures. Many of them are beginning to bear good so I am really considering hitting them with Round Up just to even up the playing field. And that 100 acres I was gonna burn this year, oh heck no, can you even imagine how much easy food I would create like that. Be like shootin ducks in a stock pond. Thank goodness I had the "real" hunters on this site to set me straight.

When you reach that level of baiting you are known as a "Master" baiter.

Just kidding. Figured everybody on this thread could use a good laugh.

Im sure you would still do all of that work if you didn't hunt deer....right?

Nope, you did it for the "health" of the herd.

Hypocrites.

Then you are going to start a thread bitchin about your neighbor.

Maybe the fact that a bag of corn countered your "management" hit a real nerve......

Just skimmed through and did not read the whole thread BUT, it seems to me like y'all think baiting is illegal in Alabama. Anyone CAN legally hunt over bait in Alabama now. Simply put your corn pile/feeder, sweet potatoes, whatever, in or behind a thicket 101 yds from your stand and hunt away. No one can convince me that hunting over bait is not now legal in Alabama. We just have to hunt a little farther from it and not be able to look at it (probably makes some of us feel better) than other States. So..... why the argument? You can even put your corn pile off the back of your greenfield if that make you fell ethical!

What the hell does the amount of effort have to do with what something is? If you hitch a plow to yourself and drag it like a mule; if you crawl along and poke each individual seed hole with your little finger; if you water each seed with your own spit; you know what it will be when it starts to grow out of the ground? BAIT!

It's harder to weave a basket by hand than it is to let a machine make one. But in either case you know what the finished product is? A f#####g basket. Are machine made baskets illegal because they are easier to make?

And this notion that all you have to do is swing by the feed store on the day you are going hunting and buy a sack of corn to pour out under your tree is beyond ignorant. Deer like corn but they have to find it like any other food source. That takes time just like with a green patch. You can't just pour it out for the first time and sit over it that day. It's food not magic pixie dust. Good grief.



I wish I knew the percentage of Alabama hunters that planted patches that provided 9-12 months of food each year for deer. I bet it wouldn't crack double digits. I'm 50 years old and lived here my whole life. I don't know anyone that does and I know a lot of hunters. The vast, VAST, majority of green patches planted in Alabama each year are just winter wheat, rye grass, or oats. None of which provide year round food. This is just another myth that people dig out of their @$$ to make themselves real superior.

Yeah, you trust in that and see what happens to you. The warden still has the discretion to write you up if he feels like the corn/feeder benefitted your hunt.